Café Chalupecký: WHW Prague

What, how and for whom of WHW

In their presentation, Ivet Ćurlin and Sabina Sabolović, members of the What, How & for Whom/WHW collective will discuss ways in which the local perspective continuously influences their curatorial practice, anchored in directing non-profit Gallery Nova in Zagreb. As many other European countries, Croatia is facing the devastating side-effects of radical right-wing populism and historical revisionism. How can we rethink exhibitions as interventionist forms in ideological, political and material circumstances of high adversity? The presentation will touch upon several projects from different periods, from the very beginning of their practice to the most recent ones.

What, How & for Whom/WHW is a curatorial collective formed in 1999 and based in Zagreb and Berlin. Its members are curators Ivet Ćurlin, Ana Dević, Nataša Ilić and Sabina Sabolović, and designer and publicist Dejan Kršić. WHW organizes a range of production, exhibitions and publishing projects and directs Gallery Nova in Zagreb. In 2018 WHW launched a new international study program for emerging artists called WHW Akademija, based in Zagreb. Departing from the notion of the ‘conscious citizen’ it is aiming to enable space for self-determination for the participants. From June 2018 WHW holds collective directorship of Kunsthalle Wien.

Since their first exhibition, called What, How & for Whom, on the occasion of 152^nd anniversary of the Communist Manifesto in Zagreb, that took place in Zagreb in 2000, WHW curated numerous international projects, among which are Collective Creativity, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, 2005; 11th Istanbul Biennial What Keeps Mankind Alive?, Istanbul, 2009; and One Needs to Live Self-Confidently…Watching, Croatian pavilion at 54^th Venice Biennial, 2011. Recent projects include the festival Meeting Points 7 that took place in Zagreb, Antwerp, Cairo, Hong-Kong, Beirut, Vienna and Moscow under title Ten thousand wiles and a hundred thousand tricks in 2013 and 2014, exhibition Really Useful Knowledge, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2014, So You Want To See, e-flux gallery, New York, 2015, Again and Again, David Maljković’s retrospective, (co-curated with Bojana Piškur), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, 2016; My Sweet Little Lamb, (everything we see can also be otherwise), (co-curated with Kathrin Rhomberg), various locations in Zagreb, 2016/2017; Everything we see could also be otherwise (My sweet little lamb), (co-curated with Kathrin Rhomberg and Emily Pethick), The Showroom, London, 2017; Želimir Žilnik Shadow Citizens, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art, Oldenburg, 2018; On the Shoulders of Fallen Giants, 2nd Industrial Art Biennial, Labin, Raša, Rijeka, Pula and Vodnjan, 2018.

Photo: Written-off, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Storm; 2015; curated by WHW and Public library; wall drawing: Siniša Ilić; photo: Ivan Kuharić

Presentation of Ivet Ćurlin from the curatorial collective WHW